mardi 22 mars 2011

Jour 1411

"The clear winner of the élections cantonales, a local government poll seen as a test almost a year before the presidential election, is not the left – although it came out leading: it is Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right anti-immigration National Front. For the first time, the party created by her father came out neck and neck with the president's UMP – which in more than 50 constituencies didn't even make it to the second round. This will leave a bitter taste in Sarkozy's mouth. In 2007, one of his major successes was to reduce the National Front to a one-digit score in the first round of the presidential election, bringing back "lost voters" to the traditional right. But, disillusioned, they have returned en masse to the Le Pen brand. With Marine Le Pen running for president next year, alarm bells are ringing in French political circles. Not because she could be elected president – that will never happen – but because of the devastating effect she is having on everyone else's strategy. [...] on Sunday night, when the UMP's defeat had become clear, Jean-François Copé, its secretary-general, refused a repeat of the "Republican pact" of 2002: UMP voters will not be called to vote for the left in a Socialist-National Front duel. An ominous sign."